Theme:
Shift

Join us for our fourth year of TEDxDesMoines, as we explore the theme "shift." Our event features a dynamic mix of local thought leaders and draws on TED footage of global experts who look to inspire and guide our collective exploration:

Embrace disruption and move past yesterday's perception. Explore this new space. Awaken an awareness suited to confront tomorrow's challenges. Discover in yourself an agent of change.

Speakers

George co-founded Greater Good Studio to increase the impact of his user-centered design practice. He started his career as a designer at IDEO Chicago, later taking these experiences to become the Lead Designer at the Chicago Transit Authority. He is now a tenure-track professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He remains wildly optimistic that we can solve the most entrenched problems of our time, together for the greater good.

John Cacioppo is the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor and Director of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago. He is a pioneer in the field of social neuroscience and the author of more than 400 scientific articles and 20 books. Among the awards he has received are the Troland Award from the NAS, the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from APA, a MERIT Award from NIH, the Scientific Impact Award from the SESP, the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions from SPR, and the Campbell Award and the Theoretical Innovation Prize from SPSP.

Jessica Wachter is an artist from Fargo, North Dakota, whose mixed-media work includes oil painting and printmaking. She draws inspiration for her artwork from past experiences and with it expresses a passion for life. Her abstract expressionist style artwork is illuminating and evokes the power of interpretation. Since graduating with degrees in Art and Interior Design, the artist has shown in numerous exhibitions including “Beyond Convention,” Plains Art Museum, ND Museum of Art, ecce Gallery, and “NDSU Juried Student Exhibit,” Memorial Union Art Gallery, for which she received the People’s Choice Award as featured in the NDSU Magazine Spring 2009.

Dr. Ihrig is the Medical Director of Palliative Care at the Trinity Regional Medical Center in Fort Dodge. He is a member of the Board of Governance for Unity Point Health System, the board of the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of Iowa, Chair of the Health Services Committee for Empower Tanzania Incorporated, and a clinical adjunct professor at the University of Iowa. He attained his Master’s degree in molecular biology and his medical degree from the University of Nebraska, his internal medicine residency through the University of Iowa and a fellowship in Palliative Care and Hospice at Stanford University.

Jann Freed, PhD, is a leadership development and change management consultant with The Genysys Group. She assists organizations and leaders in initiating, sustaining, and safeguarding long-term innovative change. Jann does this by facilitating vision-based strategic planning and executive coaching using a “strategic futuring” model. The goal is to help organizations get from where they are to where they want to be.
Her latest book, “Leading with Wisdom: Sage Advice from 100 Experts”, is based on interviews with some of the top thought leaders and executive coaches in the country.

Angela Onwuachi-Willig is the Charles and Marion Kierscht Professor of Law at the University of Iowa. She is a graduate of Grinnell College and the University of Michigan Law School and is working toward her Ph.D. at Yale University. She is the author of the new book, “According to Our Hearts: Rhinelander v. Rhinelander and the Law of the Multiracial Family”. She is a past recipient of the Derrick Bell, Jr. Award and Marion Huit Award, is a former Iowa Supreme Court finalist, and has been placed on the National Law Journal’s “Minority 40 under 40” list.

Alex King is the Director of the US Department of Energy’s Critical Materials Institute; and the former Director of the Ames Laboratory, in Ames, Iowa.
He has been a Visiting Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; and a US Department of State Jefferson Science Fellow. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mining Minerals and Materials; ASM International; and the Materials Research Society.
Alex has also been the President of the Materials Research Society; Chair of the University Materials Council; and Chair of the American Physical Society’s Group on Energy Research and Applications.

Scott McLeod, J.D., Ph.D., is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on K-12 school technology leadership issues. After 14 years as an Educational Leadership professor, Dr. McLeod currently serves as the Director of Innovation for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency in Pocahontas, Iowa. He also is the Founding Director of the UCEA Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), the nation’s only academic center dedicated to the technology needs of school administrators, and was a co-creator of the wildly popular video series, Did You Know? (Shift Happens).